#SpecFicByWomenOfColor

This year I focused the bulk of my reading on books of the speculative fiction genre written by women of color (WOC). Why? Here is what I posted at the beginning of the year.

I didn't get to read as many as I'd hoped, for various reasons: some books I started but couldn't continue because the writing was just not good; I had some reading promises to keep to others; and, then, once in a while I found something else I wanted to read that just so happened to be either not spec fic or not by a WOC.

After certain recent events, I researched online ways I could support small, Black-owned businesses. On one website with a list of Black-owned online retailers, an idiotic commenter asked, "What about a list of White-owned businesses?"

The answer to that is, I think, similar to the reason why I focused this year on spec fic by WOC: Because White is already considered the norm, especially White and male. I'm betting that anyone reading this can name, offhand and without a lot of thought, at least five White, male fantasy/sci-fi writers. I know I can.

Now, can you name five women?

Can you name five women of color?

When you come from a place of privilege it's easy to have a blind spot when it comes to the "other." As a White woman I felt it my duty to make the conscious effort to expand my literary world.

Between the hideous and utterly misogynistic "social movement" Gamergate and the Ferguson, MO court ruling, I think that right now is the perfect time to support female writers (and all lady geeks!) and geeks of color. Female writers don't have cooties; they don't all write romance (my short stories have 0% romance in them, and only one of my novels has a romantic relationship in it, which is more of a side plot than the feature); they don't all write about periods and babies and shoe shopping. Writers of color don't only write about how hard their lives are, or how exotic their native lands are, or how much they hate White people. Certain things are universal, and that's the main takeaway I found in this project: Alienation. Longing. Acceptance. Fear. Growth. Guilt. Redemption. Regret. And yes, love. Love is not a woman thing. It's not a girly thing. Even men need love in their lives, whether it's romantic or something else...something more.

Black writers do not write only for Black people. Women do not write only for women. To think so, and to go through life enjoying only books that match your demographic, is to miss out on some of the greatest, most interesting and entertaining works out there. And, that's also sort of missing the point of being into spec fic, isn't it?

I'll be keeping this list in the column to the right up on my blog for the foreseeable future, and as I go forward and read more spec fic by WOC I'll add them to the list. For now, here are some resources I have been using throughout 2014 to find books to read, as well as some other links I like.

The Carl Brandon Society works "to help build further awareness of race and ethnicity in speculative literature and related fields." http://carlbrandon.org/index.html

Worlds Without End's Award Winning Books by Women Authors. You might have to dig a little to find the WOC, but they're there. https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_women_winners.asp

The Nerds of Color. Just an all-around great geek site. http://thenerdsofcolor.org/

An article on Asian spec fic writers. http://carriecuinn.com/2013/06/18/list-94-asian-speculative-fiction-authors-with-links/

Another good all-purpose list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction_by_writers_of_color

This list is YA-heavy, but hey, there is some damn fine YA out there. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/36880.Speculative_Fiction_by_Women_of_Color

For 2015 I will not be focusing on authors; rather, I'm going to attempt to put a dent in my rather large pile of unread books I already own. Some of them might be by writers of color; some are by women of color. I'll keep you posted. 

Reading Project: 2015

A few years ago, my husband decided to dedicate an entire year to a specific theme in his reading. His first reading project was to choose a book from each decade of the 20th century. Some books he enjoyed; others he did not. Either way, he was glad to have chosen a theme in which to pick his books, and he opened his mind to some of the great works of the last century.

Inspired, I've spent this year reading genre books by Women of Color. Not exclusively, but still making an effort to include as many as I could find. In fact, had I not taken a break from my project to read "Sword & Sorceress 29," I never would have discovered Rabia Gale. Some books were easy to get: Octavia Butler is a pretty big name in speculative fiction. Others were tough: I still have "The Bone Whistle" on my to-read pile, and so far it's the only spec fic by a Native American woman I've been able to get my hands on. Other books were a pleasant surprise, like the recently read "Rainbird" by Rabia Gale.

Other books, which I will not name, I started and could not finish because they were just not good, and my desire to support non-white female authors within the speculative fiction genre was not great enough to overcome the truly awful writing.

Now that we're into the last quarter of the year, my thoughts have necessarily turned to my reading project for 2015. For a while I considered read genre and historical fiction outside my comfort zone. In genre, I gravitate towards urban fantasy, magic realism, paranormal, and dark fantasy/light horror. In historical fiction, I tend towards British Dark Ages/High Middle Ages (5th-12th centuries), the Japanese Samurai period, and early 20th century American. My idea was to branch out into other subgenres -- steampunk, space opera, alien invasion, high/epic fantasy -- and other time periods -- the Wild West, ancient China, pre-history, the American Revolution.

Then yesterday something caught my attention: several books in my bookcase I hadn't read yet. When I went through the shelves I discovered five print books I own, which I had not yet read. They've been on my shelves for at least a year. I then dove into my e-reader library and discovered twelve more unread books. That's seventeen books I own which I have not read.

Seventeen.

Ok, three of those -- one print and two e-books -- are part of my Spec Fic by Women of Color project. But even if I read those this year, that leaves over a dozen unread books in my to-read pile. Fourteen! Even taking a break to read other books, I should be able to finish those by the end of 2015.

The unread books on my shelves both virtual and physical break down as follows:

7 genre/spec fic
6 non-fiction (including a memior by Joan Rivers)
4 literary/classic fiction (including The Count of Monte Cristo)

Challenge accepted! My reading project for 2015 will be to read all the books I own which have languished unread in the ethers of my nook and the dusty shelves of my big bookcase. I vow to put myself on a book-buying freeze until I either finish them or declare them unreadable after the first three chapters/50 pages, whichever comes first.

Random collections of ghost stories, humorous essays on parenting, and ARCs I won from a "Fantasy & Science Fiction" magazine contest, here I come!

Influences, Part III

A while ago, I talked about the books that influenced me to become a writer, from Judy Blume to Marion Zimmer Bradley; I then discussed the works of speculative fiction I feel most influenced that aspect of my writing life. Today, I'd like to discuss the flip side of that: historical fiction.

After spec fic, historical fiction is my favorite subgenre. Non-fiction tends to put me to sleep; sadly, most of what I know about history probably comes from fiction.

My love for historical fiction began in two ways: first, my mother has always loved Arthuriana, and she passed that on to me. I found that "The Once and Future King" wasn't enough for me, and it didn't take long to find works of Arthuriana more rooted in the history of Dark Ages England than in fantasy. Second, my ninth grade world history teacher once assigned us to read a work of historical fiction; influenced, once again, by my mother, whose favorite book growing up was "Exodus," I read the 400+ page book in two weeks, at the age of 14.

And that's all it took. I fell deeply in love with historical fiction.

About 90% of what I read falls into the speculative fiction, historical fiction, or historical fantasy categories. The other 10% tend to be feminist theory or what's known as "literary fiction" recommended to me by my husband. The most recent of the latter was "White Noise" by Don DeLillo, which I found seriously lacking in dragons and/or zombies.

Here, then, are the works of historical fiction I have found to be most influential in my writing life.


Exodus, by Leon Uris

You know when you read a book, and you love it so much that you pretty much never stop reading it, even when you're with friends, and you tell your friends about the book so much that even they can't wait to hear what happens next, and for years and years later and probably the rest of your life scenes from the book will just pop into your head? Yeah, that's "Exodus" for me.

For my mom, who grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school for 12 years, reading this book at the age of 13 helped her make the decision to convert to Judaism when she was 20 years old. 

When my husband and I first met and began dating, I gave him this book (and another, below) as gifts, and even he loved it. I loved it so much I read it again, 12 years after I first read it in junior high.

"Exodus" centers on Israel's struggle for independence, a topic which resonated strongly with me fresh off my Bat Mitzvah and my first trip there. It was also the first book I remember which was told in multi-person POV with long, lingering flashbacks. This set the stage for a lifetime of appreciating stories told from a wide variety of character points-of-view.

Also? The movie version has a young and hot Paul Newman in it as our moody, flawed hero (swoon!) Ari Ben Canaan. So, there's that.

I mean, come ON!

Here Be Dragons/Welsh Princes Trilogy, by Sharon Kay Penman

I bought this book because I liked the title; it has the word "Dragons" in it, and that was all it needed to catch my attention. When I read the back cover summary and discovered it took place in 12th century England and Wales, I was reeled in. And when I started reading it, I was a smitten kitten.

If you'd asked me before I read this book, sometime in the late 1990s, whether or not I was interested in reading an entire trilogy devoted to the history of Wales, I probably would have said, "Put it in my to-do list." But I started reading the book anyway...and had to rush out to buy the next book in the series, "Falls the Shadow," and the last book, "The Reckoning." Once again told in multiple POVs, full of rich historical details without info dumps, and absolutely sweeping in medieval military strategy, I've never been able to hear the title "Prince of Wales" the same way again.


Dreamland, by Kevin Baker

I cannot overemphasize the influence this book has had on my entire life. Not just my writing life, but my life. I read it during a period in the early 2000s when I was unemployed, single, and pretty much spent my days alternately writing and reading and watching Yankees games. 

Because my own family history includes Eastern European Jews arriving in New York through Ellis Island in the late 1800s/early 1900s, this book captured my imagination in a very real way, and never let go. Fourteen years after I read it, I still can't ride the Cyclone at Coney Island without thinking of Esther Abramowitz, and her wild ride. I took a class at NYU in the former Triangle Shirtwaist building where she worked, and some of my father's family lived in the same Lower East Side neighborhood where many of the book's scenes take place. How could I not be inspired?

When I met my to-be husband, I gave him this, along with EXODUS, and he loved it.

More recently, this book helped inspire me to write my own tribute to the immigrants who came through Ellis Island, THE HOLLOW QUEEN. 

Long live DREAMLAND.

The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

There are three specific reasons why I have to include THE KNOWN WORLD on this list.

1. This book beautifully combines what I consider the two parts of writing: craft and story. Some writers are more about "craft," trying to be clever with turns of phrase and tight prose. Others focus on story. I can forgive a lot of bad writing in the name of a good story. Thankfully, with this book I got both. Really excellent writing, and a truly mind-blowing story that kept me hooked from start to finish. It's pretty much a perfect book.

2. The story blew my mind. I'm the product of a pretty half-assed public school education, and so I never knew that there were black slave owners in America. I found Henry Townsend's story by turns horrific and hopeful. It does what I love most about historical fiction: highlights a little-known sliver of history that, once you know about it, you wonder why it isn't considered a bigger deal.

3. I read somewhere that it took Jones ten years to write this book. TEN. YEARS. Whenever I feel slow, or lose hope, I remember that, and remember how it was all worth it -- at least, for me, the reader.



The Kingmaking/Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, by Helen Hollick

I've mentioned before that my mother and I are deeply into Arthuriana. We're always looking for a good King Arthur story to read together. For a very long time we coped with books that didn't quite scratch that itch for us. I won't name names, but it included, among others, at least one entire series that we stuck with only because it involved an enormous amount of historical detail. Maybe too much detail. (I've since spoken with others who agree that this particular series could have easily been done in a book or two.)

Then, shortly after my oldest child was born, I saw this book on display at Barnes & Noble. I texted my mom, we both bought it...and were both in love.

Helen Hollick has a talent for building her world by highlighting the ways in which Dark Ages-era Britain was so similar to today's modern world, while including plenty of gritty details illustrating how very strange and foreign it was, too. She's a writer who has done her research and knows when to add detail, how to set a scene, how to make the 5th century come alive. Arthuriana is hard to do. These characters are so well-known, it's easy to fall into hyperbole or caricaturization. In this trilogy, Hollick brings the humanity to Arthur and Guenivere, following them from childhood to old age. There's no Lancelot. There's no silly love triangle. Arthur is a flawed hero with an amazing amount of depth: he's a philandering son-of-a-bitch who is too smart for his own good and too cunning for any enemy stupid enough to stand in his way. He loves his family beyond belief, loves Guenivere even though he has a pathological inability to stay faithful to her. Guenivere is strong-willed, proud, intelligent, and stands up for what she knows is right. She confronts her own rapist. She loves her children. She cannot help but forgive Arthur, again and again. These are real people, living real lives, told in a seamless tapestry of asides, POVs, and historical detail. This trilogy is the very definition of when we call writing a great lie, and in the middle of that lie is the truth.



What are your favorite works of historical fiction?

Spoiler-Free Book Review: "Rainbird" by Rabia Gale

Before I go into my review of Rabia Gale's novella, I take great pleasure in announcing that my short story, "Atheists in the Cemetery," has been accepted for publication in Burial Day Book's upcoming anthology, "Gothic Blue Book 4!"

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Just as the halfbreed title character of Rabia Gale's 31,000-word novella "Rainbird" belongs to neither one world nor the other, the story itself is neither one genre nor another. It has elements of Steampunk, but isn't, quite; there's a great deal of future noir, but it isn't all that; and the story itself is very heroic fantasy, without actually being heroic fantasy. It's a hybrid, like Rainbird herself.

And I love it.

I first discovered Rabia Gale while reading Sword & Sorceress 28. Her story about a kite-maker and the children she helps was done so well, the writing so tight and so ethereal, I had to look her up. I found "Rainbird" on her site and bought it without a second thought.

"Rainbird" takes place in some undisclosed time, presumably in our world, though even that's neither confirmed nor denied. What is told to the audience is that there is no more sun. No giant yellow ball of gas in the sky to provide light, heat, and life. Instead, the role of the sun is played by a giant heat lamp of sorts called the Day Sun, which travels on a track called the sunway across the land.

Oh, and that track? Runs along the spinal cord of a long-dead, continent-sized dragon who fell to earth.

Yeah.

Did I mention how much I love this?

Rainbird is half-human through her father Petrus, and half a species called eerie, angel-like creatures who resent the humans and their sunway and their Day Sun. The eerie have very specific rules about half-breeds, and Rainbird's mere existence is not part of those rules. As such, Petrus keeps her in hiding as his assistant inspector. They live and work in the skeleton of the dragon, helping the Company to keep the sunway running.

I. Love. This.

There's nothing about any of this I don't love. Gale's writing itself is strong and descriptive. She knows when to crank up the action and when to let you breathe. She knows exactly how much detail to give, and when. She's created a fantastical, whimsical, dark, world that is simultaneously familiar and utterly strange.

I love halfbreed stories, and I love stories of underdogs who become the hero through chance and circumstances. I love the sunway on the dragon's spine, I love the black market on Rib Three, I love the egg and mushroom houses along the dragon's bones. I love that a dragon fell to earth and got used in this way. I love the eerie's snark.

And I love the ending. Not giving anything away, but with a story like this it would have been very easy for Gale to take an extreme: either a very happy, sappy ending, or a very dark and sad one. She chose neither, and I respect that and love the choice she made.

I look forward to many, many more quality works from Rabia Gale, one of my new favorite writers.

Interview With Winifred Burton, Author of "Girl Out of Water"

As I've posted about before, my Reading Project for 2014 is to read as many speculative fiction books - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and all their subgenres - by Women of Color as I can. On Twitter, I've been using the hashtag SpecFicByWomenOfColor to chronicle my journey...and through that hashtag, I found Winifred Burton, author of the Cryptid Coterie series, fellow nerd, and Seattle-based WoC.

Girl Out of Water is the first book in the Cryptid Coterie series. If you're looking for a little science with your magic, plenty of well-drawn female characters, and urban fantasy without the ubiquitous alpha male love interest, check it out.

Here, Winifred Burton and I chat about creating magic worlds, the portrayal of women in spec fic, starting your own indie publishing company, and geek out over dragons and Hogwarts.

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Meredith Morgenstern: It was fun to read some urban fantasy in which the main character has to be introduced to the world of magic, rather than already being a part of it. That situation reminded me a lot of Lev Grossman's book, "The Magicians," in which the MC has to both cope with his/her new reality while simultaneously battling a big baddie. Why do you think it's important for the main character to start off as a "muggle" in some stories? Why did you make that choice for Tabitha?


Winifred Burton: I enjoyed The Magicians incidentally.

I think it's important because it mirrors the way most of us go through life. Very few people start out with enormous advantages, and I think it's probably more interesting as a narrative to watch someone create themselves in the midst of that struggle.

Also it gives those of us on the Muggle grind hope that our invitation has been delayed, but it's still coming.

MM: I'm 38 and still waiting for my invitation to Hogwarts...

Do you think it's kind of a coming-of-age thing? Tabitha's a little old for puberty, but she's still starting a new chapter in her life.

WB: Same.

And yes I do.

Part of it, part of Tabitha's story is about what it's like to be a grown up (the magical power to eat cereal at midnight and do as she pleases), but then what do you do with that? Is it what you thought it would be?

I also think for women, puberty has an especially subtle emotional process that you can't see until you're on the other side of it. Tabitha's old for omg, I have boobs, but she's still inexperienced and fumbling emotionally.

MM: I like your blending of elemental magic and science fiction, in terms of genetics and physics. Do you think that straight-up "sci-fi" and straight-up "fantasy" are becoming old-fashioned as genres get blended?

WB: I hope not because in many ways I am very much addicted to the traditional tropes and stories. Some things are just better with dragons for instance.

MM: ALL things are better with dragons, IMO. Dragons are like cheese, chocolate or bacon: There's nowhere they don't belong.

WB: We agree about these things! I think classic science fiction and fantasy don't get less interesting, as much as maybe our approaches to them aren't as fresh.

Robot overlords, mining planets, magical macguffins. They never get old for me.

One of my favorite little novels is One for the Morning Glory, and it's about as old-fashioned as I think fantasy comes.

MM: Do you see technology seeping into fantasy more?

I'm thinking of things like, stories with scientific explanations for vampirism, for example.

WB: I honestly think the line between technology and magic is pretty thin.

So yes I think we'll see more of that. As leaps are made in technology there's a weird gap in the time it takes for us to accept and adopt it. I think our understanding of it in that gap is blind faith and magic. Irene and Tabitha are...In many ways on opposite ends of the same spectrum. Irene has some very interesting origins. And Tabitha is somewhat less intentional as an elemental.

MM: What they both had in common was a kind of reluctance to accept their powers. They both try so hard to be normal.

WB: I live in Irene's backyard in a way, Hanford is just a few hours away, and they've had some very scary congenital issues in their population [trigger warning for disturbing image after link]. Writing them, I wanted the reader to feel like Irene had potential as a protagonist and Tabitha had potential as a villain.

MM: It's so rare these days to read paranormal fiction in which romance takes the back seat. Your story not only has a female protag and antag, but almost exclusively female supporting characters. Was that a conscious decision on your part?

WB: Absolutely. I think the Bedchel test is fantastic but a fairly low bar.

MM: Agreed. Yet it's depressing how many films, books, and TV shows still can't pass that very low bar.

WB: I'm pretty vocal about how boring I find the standard love triangle, or quadrangle even. I wanted to explore the range of female relationships and their complexities.I also didn't want to fall into a trap of "we're all women here", so everything and everyone is harmonious.

MM: Yes! Life is not "Sex and the City." Not all women get along all the time.

WB: I tried to make the characters as real as possible, and then I gave them bizarre environs and objectives.

It was important to me to have women in competition with each other, in a totally non romantic way.

I think we so often are, but those impulses are fed into a body image/romantic context and so you lose the subtleties of it.

Also, can we just agree that if you have superpowers, falling in love is slightly less...cool isn't the right word. It's out there, that's a part of the experience, but it's odd to make it THE experience, if you can also say, move things with your mind.

MM: Who are some of your influences in both fantasy and sci-fi? Or, what movies, books, TV shows?

WB: Without seeming too fangirlish, certainly Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Octavia Butler, Clive Barker. I've always wanted to be the lovechild of Clive Barker and Toni Morrison actually.

MM: Let's talk about your experience in publishing. Why did you choose Cirrina Books?

WB: Creating a small imprint to publish my work was my first choice. I may yet in the future, but I never queried agents or the Big 6.

MM: Why?

WB: I knew it would be more work, oy such work, but I don't see myself as a good fit for that model.

Control is massive, and while I don't think self-publishing is the gold rush some people think it is, I know traditional publishing is even less so. Creatives in other areas like music, have opted out of the studio and record label system and I've admired that for a long time. I created Cirrina almost without a second thought. Maybe my entrepreneurial influences like the Ani DiFranco of my girlhood made that seem normal to me and less stigmatized. 

When I was Tabitha's age it was common for people making things to strike out on their own in the hopes that someday some nice company would later ask them to sell out.

MM: Like the Riot Grrrl zines of the early 90s.

WB: Exactly.

MM: To that end, do you have any advice for other writers considering this option?

WB: Much like adulthood, it's full stop responsibility and reward.

It doesn't require much money but it will require an enormous amount of time and dedication.

Also people like Hugh Howey have pulled back the curtain on the data for publishing this way and made it less about who's good enough to be chosen and more about who's willing to assume all risks and responsibilities.

MM: Do you think, then, that the future lies with all authors self-publishing, or creating small presses?

WB: I think the future will be more hybridization.

I think we'll see the odd self-published title,even from the big names. I have no idea what consumption via subscription will do to content generation, but I think the era of indie vs. trend will mellow a bit. Readers don't care how something is published if they like the content.

MM: Anything else you'd like to share, either about Girl Out of Water, or Cirrina, or writing in general?

WB:  I am tidying up a final edit of Broken Wave the follow up to Girl Out of Water. And I have a stand alone paranormal thriller called Mercies that just needs a cover of all things, that will release sometime this fall.

MM: Thank you! Good luck with Cirrina!

WB: Thanks!

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Winifred Burton can be found on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/winnaburto

At her website here: http://winifredburton.com/

And you can purchase Girl Out of Water here: http://winifredburton.com/2013/12/19/girl-out-of-water-coming-january-28th-2014/

Post-Vacay Check-In

Hello world!

Last week the whole family went for a much-needed vacation to my parents' house in Miami. During that week, the husband and I drove up to Club Med in Sandpiper Bay, Port St. Lucie for four days and three nights of child-free time to ourselves, which we badly needed. I've posted some photos below to make you jealous. ;-)

While on vacation from Brooklyn, I also took a "reading vacation" from my 2014 reading project: Spec Fic by Women of Color. When I travel, I like reading travel essays, so this trip I read most of John Waters' hitchhiking book, "Carsick." I highly recommend it if you have a strong stomach: that man has quite an imagination. He's funny and a good sport, though, and reading his book has made me wish I could take a cross-country road trip just so I could pick him up.

Now that I'm back to Real Life, I'm ready to return to my 2014 reading project and to my writing. I've got my second novel to revise, two short stories to send out, and two works by my critique partners I have to edit; not to mention some more blog posts. Next week I have an interview with "Girl Out of Water" author Winnifred Burton, and in the next few weeks I'll have more sf/f influences, more book reviews, more Lost Scenes, and more Geek TV. Keep checking in!

Until then, enjoy the photos from Club Med: Sandpiper Bay!

Sunset over the St. Lucie River

Morning in Sandpiper Bay, Port St. Lucie, Florida

Our view at breakfast

Club Med has six Hobie Cat sailboats. Hubby and I had an
awesome time going for morning sails on the Port St. Lucie
River. One morning we went so far out we saw dolphins!

Hobie sail

Enjoying a well-earned mimosa after driving the Hobie Cat along the river

One afternoon it rained, so we drank rose wine at the lounge. Of course.

Spoiler-Free Book Review: "A Conservation of Shadows" by Yoon Ha Lee

I'm bad at math, and I don't mean that in a girlie-girl, giggly, "Tee hee, math is so hard!" hair-twirling kind of way. What I mean is, I think I have some sort of undiagnosed math learning disability. I struggled through pre-algebra, twice. In my junior year of high school I failed algebra II, despite the tutor my mom hired to help me, and had to go to summer school in order to graduate. The only math class I took after that was the one the College of Arts and Sciences at NYU required for gen ed; they might as well have called it "Math for Lit Major Morons." I barely passed with a "D."

So I'm a little bit in awe of people for whom math comes easily: my mom, my best friend of 26 years, and now, Yoon Ha Lee. I now have two reasons to be envious of her: she's good at math, and she's a brilliant writer.

To my mind, math and literature are two separate animals, but Yoon Ha Lee - a Korean-American math major - manages to seamlessly weave the two together in beautiful, almost poetic ways. "Conservation of Shadows" is both the title of the collection of short stories, as well as one of the stories contained within. It took me longer to read than I had anticipated because some of the stories get quite detailed with science and technology, and those are not my native reading languages.

As with most short story collections, some are more hit and some are more miss. With a few exceptions, I tend not to read a lot of space opera. Because of this, the stories "Ghostweight," and "The Unstrung Zither" were not my favorites; I could not finish "The Battle of Candle Arc." Yet I loved "Swanwatch," and "Between Two Dragons," arguably both space operas.

The stories in the collection I enjoyed most were the ones that did away with fancy theories of space travel or complicated technology. "The Shadow Postulates" has a brilliant plot device in the form of living shadows on a university campus. "The Bones of Giants" I wished was a full-length novel, with such strong world-building I was sad when the story ended.

Four stories stand out to me as favorites:

In "Blue Ink," a young woman is faced with a parallel version of herself who requests her help in a war. I love the idea of parallel universes and of traveling between them to visit other versions of ourselves. What would we say? What would we do? Would we be shocked by our otherselves? Would we help them? Would they help us? It's such a rich topic, yet so hard to do well. In this story, Yoon crafts clever and creative answers to those questions.

"Iseul's Lexicon" is my second-favorite story, and probably one of the most intelligent works I've ever read. How would a conquering culture best erase all traces of the previous culture? By, quite literally, erasing their words from existence. Not only was this story hyper-creative and stunningly written, but as an American, with full knowledge of Yoon's Korean-American background, and with full knowledge of my nation's recent history and current cultural hegemony around the globe, it was hard to read this and not feel a potent mix of guilt and sympathy. I mean that in a good way; Americans should not shy away from difficult topics, and white people definitely need to not shy away from stories that present points of view told by the victims of empire and colonization.

I really loved reading "The Book of Locked Doors." It was one of those stories I could have read forever. In addition to the subject matter at hand - what, exactly, is "terrorism" when you are defending your own homeland and cultural identity? - I love the idea of a living book that talks to you, a sort of self-aware Book of the Dead. Again, this story speaks to Yoon's fascinatingly deep levels of creativity and intelligence.

The last story in the collection is the title story, "A Conservation of Shadows," and it is far and away my favorite. Written in gorgeous, but not flowery, prose, it reminds me of one of my favorite short story writers, Cat Rambo. The story, so I've read, was inspired by Yoon's love of the Sumerian myth of the Descent of Inanna, but, like most well-written stories, could be interpreted in any number of ways.

Although this is a collection of unrelated short stories, a few common themes unite them: civil war, military occupation, lost of culture and language. Many of the worlds in the stories have Eastern influences, rather than the usual Medieval European influence, which I welcomed with open arms. One of the reasons I embarked on my "Speculative Fiction by Women of Color" reading project for 2014 was to explore new world building and cultural influences, and I wasn't disappointed here.

I will absolutely be seeking out more of Yoon Ha Lee's stories. Maybe one day, when she invents time travel, she can travel back to the early 1990s and be my math tutor so I don't have to go to summer school in 1993. A girl can dream.

Guest Post: JD Miller

As we know, writing can be a lonely, solitary process. Thanks to the magics of the interwebs, writers have more ways than ever of connecting with one another, learning from one another, and finding our "people" out there in cyberspace.

For these past three weeks, I've introduced you to three of my writing people: my critique partners. I like the number three for critique partners; if just one person disagrees with me, I'm never sure whether they are right and I should change something, or whether they just didn't "get" it; with two, they may completely disagree with one another ("You should totally cut that scene out," "You should totally make that scene longer,"); with three there is always a tie-breaker, and if more than one -- or all three -- say the same thing about a particular scene or short story, I know I can trust them.

Having a good critique partner isn't easy. It's a give-and-take process that requires an enormous deal of trust, communication and respect. The three people I'm spotlighting are writers whose work I genuinely enjoy reading, who are somewhere around the same place I am with regards to experience and position in trying to get published, and whose advice I take to heart.

Two weeks ago I introduced you to my longest-running critique relationship, and last week you met my newest critique partner. Here to wrap things up is my middlest critique partner, JD Miller, aka Lady of Kaos. I had the pleasure of critiquing the second novel in her BLOOD OF KAOS series, DREAMREAPER, and in return she's given me tremendous insight into world-building, continuity, and character development. (She also keeps my sentence lengths in check because I once called her the Queen of Run-On Sentences. Turnabout is fair play.) Her world of fairies is well-built, well-thought out, and those fairies? Are anything but twee.

JD has some experience in indie publishing, which she's going to discuss here. You can find her on Twitter at LadyofKaos or on her blog at http://ladyofkaos.wordpress.com.

Published

In the beginning, my book series was not a series. It was merely an indulgent whim, an opportunity to try my hand at writing. The idea of turning it into a published piece of work was…inconceivable.

Enter a handful of diehard fans. That’s diehard Blood of Kaos fans, not Bruce Willis Diehard fans...although I do love those movies. At the behest of my diehard fans, I began to think that perhaps they were right and I could turn the story into something more than mere ramblings of a fantasy enthusiast. Jump ahead six years and here I am…with a published book…and the second in the series in the works. The journey has involved hard work, a lot of reading, tons of writing, and listening to professional advice. May I add, there is a ton of professional advice out there.  It can literally drive you mad.  My unprofessional advice is to consider what they have to say, because they do have many valid points, but, in the end, no one knows your work better than you - make your own decisions about your writing and how to handle it. Don’t short change yourself by listening to bullshit about how a first fantasy novel should be limited to 100,000 words or less, if possible. Fantasies are epic for a reason. If you are writing fantasy and it takes 150,000 words to tell the tale then use 150,000 words, but you have to make damn sure those 150,000 words are worth reading.

Now, when you’re ready to actually publish your book (after many beta reads, critiques from amazing writing partners (I have my own personal Writing Dominatrix) [You're welcome. - MM.], edits, rewrites, edits, and more rewrites, which then should be handed over to a qualified editor, which will naturally lead to more rewrites, edits, and rewrites. Never fear, it’s normal, something I didn’t know at the time. I’ve learned many things since Blood of Kaos was published) be very choosy about to whom you release your Precious. I submitted my manuscript to dozens upon dozens upon DOZENS of literary agents. I fine tuned my query letter and my synopsis (bane!) and submitted to every fantasy literary agent I could find.

Then I read somewhere that a writer doesn’t necessarily have to have a literary agent to be successful. 

By the sea and stars! A writer can submit direct to publishers!

Hold up little darlin’ before you get too excited.

The big publishing houses do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. They require all submissions come through a literary agent.

Tartarus!

Plan B. Thus, I submitted my Precious to smaller publishing houses. Reject, reject, reject, and, oh, look! Reject! Mumbling to myself how J.K. Rowling suffered her fair share of rejections before finding the holy grail of publishers, I continued to submit, always with the positive belief that all I needed was ONE to see the genius in my work. Amidst all the rejections, most of which came right off a computerized rejection assembly line, there was one angel of mercy, a bright shiny light of encouragement, my bridge over troubled waters. A gracious woman from The Wild Rose Press actually read my first three chapters and responded with valuable feedback; feedback that I will never forget. Her suggestions changed everything.

Of course, it meant I had to regroup and rethink the flow of the story and do the rewrite thing. I wasn’t successful with The Wild Rose because Blood of Kaos is not a romance novel. It has romance and a little erotica, but it’s not the driving force of the story. But not long after, I found a publishing house that was willing to take me on. I thought the sun, the moon, and the stars had aligned and Fate had finally smiled on me.

Funny thing about that smile – it was more of a smirk - no, not even a smirk. It was a twitch - an evil twitch - at the corner of her wicked, black-lipsticked lips. Euphoria had tainted my vision.

Hear me well, there are publishing houses and there are publishing houses.

After this venture it’s the Indie author train straight to self-publishing. It will take a lot of hard work, but, at the end of the day, the profits will be mine. I won’t have to give the lions share to someone who does nothing to promote me as an author other than tack my picture, a bio, and a snippet of my book on their website (all of which I created myself). Yeah, that’s worth 60% of whatever I sell, she says with a roll of her eyes. As a result, I have absolutely no control over my book for five years, no say in the pricing, no free copies, no mobi versions (even after I specifically requested one), no marketing assistance, no help with reviews, no guidance and no advice WHATSOEVER for a novice author, BUT I did get a single .pdf file.

Hallelujah, shall we dance in the streets for that small concession!

Silly me thought it would be a 50/50 type relationship. I thought publishers invested time and effort into their authors to help them towards success. Does a successful author not make for a successful publisher? Why take someone on and leave them to flounder in the deep end? Do you really expect to make money that way? I don’t get it.

Perhaps I think too logically, too Mr. Spock. I am a Ned Stark amidst the Ramsey Boltons and Tywin Lannisters of the publishing world. Fortunately, unlike Ned Stark, I’ve been able to keep my head and am able to take a new path.

As Jamie Fraser would say, “Je suis prest!”

Or, at least, I think I am…